Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Zoe Cunningham

Zoe Cunningham
Backgammon Champion, Broadcaster, Blogger, Actor, Tech Guru… and…

Meet my friend, Zoe Cunningham. She’s the Managing Director of the massively successful tech company, Softwire. And yes, she is also a Ladies’ World Backgammon champion (2010), tech guru, broadcaster, blogger, actor, mentor, and much more.

In 2013, Zoe was acknowledged as one of the UK’s top 25 women in IT – Rising Star by Computer Weekly and she was also shortlisted for the ‘Business Woman of the Future’ Awards. It doesn’t end there – check out Zoe’s fabulous CV on LinkedIn.

Softwire is a leading edge software development and consultancy business, specialising in bespoke enterprise systems and sub-systems across a wide range of industries. Currently it employs 130 people and enjoys an enviable client list. The company is substantially growing year on year and its future is very bright.

As well, The Sunday Times has rated Softwire as one of the UK’s top 25 companies in the ‘Best Small Companies’ category for four years running. Impressive!

In my interview with Zoe, she shares loads of information on how Softwire has grown so successfully since its inception. Culture is critical to success, and Softwire’s culture is second to none.

Plus, Zoe provides insights into her own fascinating career path and how all her business and life experiences support her in the various roles she continues to undertake.

I know you will be inspired by Zoe’s personal journey and the success of Softwire, the company she very ably leads.

You can listen to the original Interview with Zoe Cunningham here:

To connect with Zoe:
W: www.zoefcunningham.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Stuart Norris

Stuart Norris
“We Make People Smile”

“We make people smile”. That is the vision of Magic Memories, a company founded by Stuart Norris and John Wikstrom 20 years ago for NZ$1.00! This fantastic business now enjoys a turnover of some NZ$50M per year, employs 1000 people and is located at 120 sites in nine countries.

What does this business do? You may well have bought from it without knowing it. Magic Memories photographs you, your family and friends at entertainment venues around the world, including London Zoo, London Acquarim, Harrods, Barcelona Football club, Table Mountain (South Africa) Shotover Jet and AJ Hackett Bungy Jumps in New Zealand, Sydney Opera House…. and many more locations.

It was a great pleasure interviewing my friend, Stuart Norris recently. He lives and breathes the vision and values of his company. Listen to this extremely engaging story of entrepreneurship success… and how they managed to get partners on board to fund the growth of the business. I kid you not…. Stuart and John only invested NZ$1.00 at the start of the venture, and the worked like Trojans to bring their vision to life.

The story doesn’t end there…. Magic Memories is on a major growth trajectory right now. Learn how and where this growth is occurring and why John and Stuart are committed to having the best people support them in the business, both at the board/governance level and on the management team.

I know you will enjoy this wonderful tale of entrepreneurship success.

You can listen to the original Interview with Stuart Norris here:

To connect with Stuart:
W: www.magicmemories.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Ed McLaughlin

Ed McLaughlin
Seriously Successful Entrepreneur

Meet my friend Ed McLaughlin. Ed is a New Yorker, and he knows how to be successful in business!! Like everyone, he has had his fair share of business challenges, but he nailed them and man, did he reap the benefits!

Ed and his team built up a highly successful business in the real estate outsourcing industry. To keep ahead of his competitors, Ed scaled the business quickly, and then sold it in 2005, making himself and others extremely wealthy (the sale turned all of his senior business partners into multi-millionaires!!).

After the sale, Ed stayed on as President and CEO of Johnson Controls, the company that bought out his business.

While on his entrepreneurial journey, in 2001, Ed was recognised by Ernst & Young (EY) as an Entrepreneur of the Year – this is a highly prestigious worldwide competition that EY runs every year. As well, his company became an Inc 500 company. So as you can see, Ed is a very successful entrepreneur!

Since 2008 Ed has been an angel investor and business adviser, so he knows plenty about what causes businesses to succeed… or not. We discussed this during our meeting, so listen in to what he has to say.

In mid 2015 Ed’s first book will be published: The Purpose is Profit: The Truth About Starting and Building Your Own Business. Ed uses the principles set out in his book to filter the angel investing he does, so the book will be an excellent resource for entrepreneurs.

The Purpose is Profit will be available on Amazon from mid 2015. If you would like to receive Ed’s “Pre-Release Snapshot of The Purpose is Profit”, which includes “An Entrepreneur’s Motivation” and “The Startup Roadmap”, go to Ed’s website: www.thepurposeisprofit.com and download your FREE eBook. You will then be notified when his book “The Purpose is Profit: The Truth About Starting and Building Your Own Business” is released later in the year.

I hope you enjoy listening to Ed’s fascinating entrepreneurial journey. I promise you, this interview is ‘chocka block’ with business success tips.

You can listen to the original Interview with Ed McLaughlin here:

To connect with Ed McLaughlin:
W: www.thepurposeisprofit.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Steve Pollard

Steve Pollard
Scotsman; Salesman; Serial Entrepreneur

Meet my friend Steve Pollard, self confessed serial entrepreneur, sales and marketing genius… and immodest Scotsman (according to his LinkedIn profile). 🙂

Imagine being in the highly competitive UK mortgage broking game during the global financial crisis. Scary stuff!! With his partners, Steve owned a large UK wide mortgage mortgage broking business employing 170 staff – a very successful business – and then the GFC hit…. and yet another rollercoaster in his business journey began. Notwithstanding, Steve was able to sell his business and make money from the sale, when many other brokerages just closed their doors.

Steve’s now moved to a new industry where he is aiming to create yet another large and distributed business, this time based on an online and freelance staff business model. He’s in the process of scaling the business up, so it is exciting times for Steve and his team.

I hope you enjoy Steve’s fascinating, and at times, nail biting entrepreneurial story.

You can listen to the original Interview with Steve Pollard here:

To connect with Steve Pollard:
W: www.businessuplift.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Dale Murray, CBE

Dale Murray, CBE
Co-Founder, Omega Logic; Angel Investor; Non-Executive Director; Government Business Adviser

Imagine starting up a business to launch technology based pre-pay mobile top- ups in the United Kingdom (previously a scratch card system was used), working incredibly hard with your fellow co-founders and staff to substantially grow the business in an exceptionally competitive industry, selling out and becoming CEO of the company that bought the business and driving mobile top-ups revenue to £450M, all in the space of approximately six years. Then being awarded British Angel Investor of the Year in 2011.

Well, in a nutshell, that is Dale Murray’s entrepreneurial story! But it doesn’t end there. Dale is now a coach to start-up and early stage businesses. She is also a Non Executive Director (NED) of the British Government’s Department for Business, Innovations and Skills, and UK Trade and Investment, along with being a NED of other businesses. Born in New Zealand and living in London, in 2013 Dale was awarded a CBE by HM the Queen for services to business.

There were many early challenges in establishing Omega Logic as a serious business in the mobile technology sector. Credibility was an initial hurdle as the company was very small and was competing with much larger and established technology software entities, all vying to win contracts with Vodafone, Orange and other multi-billion pound telecommunications network businesses. Professionalism, and a total customer service and delivery focus were key in being accepted and to winning major contracts.

The mobile top-up software developed by Omega Logic and other competitors was displacement technology. This required a change in consumer buying behaviour, which was not easy to achieve. Supported by the marketing efforts of the telecommunications networks and incentivising the re-sellers to sell top- ups rather than scratch cards, finally the new technology broke through consumer buying resistance, and Omega Logic grew. Dale and her co-founders had to ‘dig deep’ and totally believe that their technology would be accepted by consumers. “Resilience was often required”, commented Dale, “as it was very difficult to push through the resistance in consumer buying patterns”.

Another key element in Omega Logic’s success was the quality of its technology. The company had a vision of being the best software provider for top-ups on the high street, leveraging the till technology that retailers already had.

Strong financial management was also key to the success of Omega Logic. Dale has a chartered accounting background, and ensured robust financial control systems were in place to manage the volume of money that flowed between the retailers, networks and Omega Logic.

Dale’s advice to budding entrepreneurs is:

1) Clearly understand and articulate what it is you are doing – what is the business? What problem are you solving and how are you going to make money? If over time there is a lack of clarity around the business strategy, quickly sort it out to enable the business to move on.

2) Carefully manage team dynamics. When things go wrong with people (founders and staff), face them head on, and deal with them immediately.

3) Network widely from time to time, but get on with the work. Dale notes that too many budding entrepreneurs are focused on networking rather than building their business.

Over the next few years Dale wants to continue acting as an advocate for entrepreneurs in all the various capacities she currently enjoys. Dale has a particular interest in female entrepreneurs as she believes they see things differently. As well, Dale will continue investing in ventures that are of interest to her.

Adèle’s Note:
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dale Murray for my book: BIG Profits – 12 Strategies To Substantially Grow YOUR Business Profits, in which Dale features.

Dale has a wonderful entrepreneurial success story, founded on being in the right place at the right time; being in a sector she knew and liked; with her co-founders, working exceptionally hard to break into and succeed in an established market; being totally focused on customer service and software excellence; and having a total passion for and belief in what Omega Logic stood for, especially when times were tough. As well, the co-founders had an exit strategy that they executed at the right time. Since then, Dale has continued her entrepreneurial endeavours, while supporting others towards their success. Dale now has three young children, and while she gets huge pleasure out of business, she is very family focused, and able to balance the demands and joys of both. It was an absolute pleasure to interview Dale, and to hear her story which will be an inspiration to many entrepreneurs across the world.

You can listen to the original Interview with Dale Murray here:

To connect with Dale Murray:
W: www.dalemurray.net

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Meet Shannon Lea Reynolds

Shannon Lea Reynolds
Consultant, Coach, Speaker (aka The Well Heeled Coach)

Shannon grew up within an entrepreneurial family, so began working from the age of five years in her grandmother’s restaurant, and at 12 years old, she was doing the accounting and book keeping for various family businesses. After leaving school, Shannon moved into banking, and quickly moved up the levels to become the youngest officer they had in the bank. Shannon studied full-time at night while working full-time, and with this thirst for knowledge found herself quickly getting bored in the bank jobs she undertook. She would take on new roles, write the ‘how to’ manuals, and then move to the next role. During her maternity leave from the bank, Shannon worked part-time as an on-call officer, covering for management staff across the bank’s state network. Through that exposure, Shannon’s confidence and experience continued to develop such that after 20 years in banking she left to establish her own business. Shannon’s business quickly moved from book keeping to working with businesses that were in transition or financial difficulty, where she reconstructed their financial statements. By doing that type of work, Shannon ‘fell’ into management consulting.

One of the biggest challenges Shannon faced was the decision to leave banking after 20 years; it was a comfortable career and the staff were like her extended family. After much deliberation, she left to set up a business where she found that the telephone did not ring and she did not have a pay cheque coming in each month. As an analytical, introverted personality type, Shannon found the idea of selling herself and her skill set to potential clients very intimidating. To manage and bypass this fear of sales, she relied heavily on her extensive network, developed during her long banking career. Shannon focused on re-establishing her credentials with the CPAs and banking lenders, and in return they referred business to her. As well, Shannon learnt the benefits of networking and using networks to build business relationships. Shannon now laughs at how she initially went six weeks without receiving a telephone call for business, then after a lot of networking, she received nine business opportunity telephone calls in one day! “Whew”, she said!!

Since those early entrepreneurial days, Shannon’s business has significantly grown and evolved. She is an advocate of lifelong learning, and continuously has coaches and mentors supporting her business success. When seeking a mentor, Shannon looks for someone who is in a field that she is in, with the same philosophy, but with more experience so she can learn from them. When seeking a business coach, Shannon looks for someone who is going to push her in areas she is not comfortable in, so that she is stretched to move beyond her own mental barriers, therefore achieving at a new level.

To be successful in business, Shannon believes:

1) You should not be afraid of failure. Very often people are so afraid that they over-analyse and paralyse themselves into inaction, such that nothing is accomplished. Shannon believes that failure is a valuable tool.

2) Make sure you have focus. Set goals and go for them but be clear on what the big picture for your business is, as it is easy to get distracted by new ideas. When a new idea arises, create and implement action steps in your business plan, even if they are small ones, so that you have forward momentum.

3) Talk about your goals so that others know what you want to achieve and can support you – whether those people be employees, family, coaches and mentors, or your network of business contacts and friends – put it out there. They will support you and hold you to account when you are checking in with them.

Adèle’s Note:
I had the pleasure of interviewing Shannon Lea Reynolds for my book: BIG Profits – 12 Strategies To Substantially Grow YOUR Business Profits, in which Shannon features.

I really enjoyed interviewing Shannon. As it turns out we have similar backgrounds; trained accountants and former bankers turned consultants/business coaches. Given her personality type, perhaps one might think that Shannon is not a ‘natural’ entrepreneur, as they are often represented as highly outgoing/extroverted types. Shannon’s success has put paid to that stereotype! By using her networks, Shannon has built a tremendously successful consulting practice, and has substantial business goals in place going forward. In particular, Shannon wants to support more women in becoming successful entrepreneurs, and with that success to create a Foundation where her successful women clients mentor and support young women in high schools and colleges to feel confident, understand their worth, and consider entrepreneurialism as a fantastic career option. A wonderful community based add-on to her business; a real example of ‘giving back’.

You can listen to the original Interview with Shannon Lea Reynolds here:

To connect with Shannon Lea Reynolds:
W: www.shannonleareynolds.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be part of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Successful Entrepreneurs and be inspired in the Successful Entrepreneurs Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success